Little miss dandelion
by TheGutsyWolf
Summary: Escaped cows, wild dogs, and quirky townsfolk. That's what Claire has to put up with when she inherits an old friends farm. But, not everything is all sunshine and roses as it seems and the coming year might just break her rather than make her.


Hello everybody, I'm back and I am currently re-doing a lot of my old stories. My updates will be a little bit slow due to work and other commitments. But, I am finally going to finish my fics this time around and will be re-naming this one. So, enjoy and don't forget to review as I love hearing everyone's support, it keeps me going.

Posted:11/11/18 | Word count: 1,449

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Chapter one: Little white letter

She stifles a yawn behind a gloved hand, pulling her faded, oversized bomber jacket more firmly around herself as another strong gust of wind threatens to knock her off her feet, making her regret not wearing a better jacket to work this morning, one which was waterproofed or had at least had a hood. But, she'd been in a rush this morning and had lacked the time or the sense to check the weather forecast for today, if she had she would have taken her umbrella with her this morning.

Big fat raindrops fall from the sky around her, mercilessly hammering her in the face and obscuring her vision as she walks up the waterlogged city street. A car or taxi making its way past her every so often, spewing fumes and clanking over the many deep potholes that litter the road. Every now and again one of the passing drivers will purposely drive through one of the larger puddles that rest at the side of the road, spraying a torrent of cold oily water at her, soaking her from head to toe.

However, she mostly stopped caring after the second or so time it happened. Since she was already well-passed soaked by the third time it happened and it's not like her clothes can get any wetter.

It's not long before she finds herself standing outside a seedy little bar, a flickering, damaged neon sign in the doorway serving as the only indicator that it's still open and not closed down and left abandoned, like most of the other businesses and warehouses located in this neighbourhood. She heads inside out of the rain, wiping her feet on an old tattered mat as she does so.

She walks past the few other patrons inhabiting the bar, nursing their beers as a few of the more sober patrons shoot her odd looks as they take in her sudden appearance, their eyes following her as she makes her way to the front of the bar, leaving a trail of muddy water behind herself as she does so.

It doesn't take her long to spot the familiar figure sat tucked away in the far corner of the bar, reading through an old battered textbook as they nurse their own bottle of cheap booze.

"It raining outside?" Asks the mop of mousy brown hair, turning a page of her book as sits down across from her.

"Nah." She says, wiping a hand across her face in a vain attempt to dry it. "I thought I'd take a short trip through a car wash on my way here."

Her sister smiles at her, looking up from her book to face her. "You're going to make yourself ill again, Claire. If you're not careful."

"Yeah, yeah." Replies Claire, putting her hands up in mock surrender. "I was in a rush this morning and forgot my umbrella." She removes her soggy jacket placing it on the seat beside her. "Contrary to popular belief even I'm not crazy enough to consider walking around in a rainstorm a good idea."

"There's a first time for everything then." Said Olivia, removing her bleach stained hoodie before handing to over to Claire. "Here put this on before you freeze to death."

Claire takes it from her, shrugging the pullover over her herself and removing her clammy blue chequered shirt from under it, discarding it beside her on top of her jacket. "Thanks, sis."

"Don't mention it." She takes a sip of her beer as she closes her book. "So, what's this I hear about a farm."

She sighs, signalling for Mack, the barman to fetch her a beer as she pulls a damp, crumpled letter from the pocket of her jeans, placing it on the table in front of her.

"It says Mr Wilson's passed and left me a large amount of land along with the house that sits on it." Explains Claire as her sister makes to read the letter.

They sit in silence while her sister reads and rereads through the aforementioned document, the sounds of the other patrons coughing and mumbling to themselves as the wind outside hammers rain into the roof above them, serving as white noise as her sister studies the document. She only looks back up at her when Mack wordlessly places a beer on the table in front of them, before disappearing back behind the bar.

"It seems legit." She tosses the piece of paper back onto the table as Claire takes a sip of her beer.

Claire chuckles as she rubs the neck of the bottle in her hand. "That all?" She asks.

"I don't know what else to say." Replies Olivia, shrugging her shoulders. "Apart from that, I think you should go for it."

She huffs, taking a swig of her beer. "I don't know if that's a good idea. Doesn't it seem just a little bit odd that he's left me, an unrelated stranger, his entire farm rather than his own flesh and blood son."

Olivia shrugs, taking a drink of her own beer. "Wait, haven't-I mean hadn't you two been pen pals for years up until the letters stopped coming in a few months back." Questions Olivia. "I mean come on, Claire. The guy practically adopted us back when we were kids and we both know that his son's a complete and utter grease ball."

Claire sighs, resting her head on her hand as she looks around the room, wondering to herself if speaking about this in public was the best idea.

"I'm not going to say I'm not considering it." Says Claire after a while. "I'm just saying I need time to think things through a little bit."

"He always said you would make a brilliant farmer when you got older."Said Olivia softly, before she starts chuckling to herself. "If you ever made to adulthood that was."

"Hey, I've made it to twenty-six haven't I." She says with her own chuckle, remembering all the times Mr Wilson had chewed her out for being a reckless mess of a girl with no sense of self-preservation. Before seeing to her cuts, bruises, and any other injuries she may have sustained and reassuringly patting her on the shoulder or ruffling her hair, much to her then-teenage annoyance. Before giving her ten times as many chores to do as punishment for nearly succeeding in getting herself killed.

"Pfft," Is Olivia's reply, letting out a laugh. "Only barely, remember that time those kids dared you to play chicken with a bull."

Claire grimaces at that, she still has the scar from the fall she took jumping over a wall to get away from the very aggressive and extremely pissed off bull. "In my defence, I did earn myself twenty bucks."

"And a nights stay in the hospital." Adds Olivia.

Claire shrugs, taking a long sip of beer. "Tomato, Tomahto." She says, remembering the injuries she'd received that day, as well as the scolding she got the day after when she was more lucid and still painfully sore all over, she'd never seen the farmer that angry before and she's glad she at least had the sense to apologise to the man. "At least I wasn't the one who became an enemy of every turkey living on the farm."

Olivia huffs at that, signalling for Mack to get her another beer. "Hey, those turkeys were beings of pure evil, what with their weird faces and all the strange demonic noises they made."

Claire laughs, remembering how at one point her sister had been too scared to leave the house, for the fear that one of the overgrown pigeons would chase her around the farm again as they tried to peck at her. Mr Wilson did manage to convince her otherwise of course, but only after he promised her that he'd secured them all in one of the larger coops on the far end of the farm, far, far away from the house. Although, that, of course, didn't stop them from escaping the coop to wreak havoc on the farm every now and again.

Claire sits back in her seat as they go over bittersweet memories of their past, chuckling as they remember all fun times they had on the farm or in Claire's case all the times she got herself into trouble, and in a few cases nearly killed.

But, as the night draws on and they eventually make their way to Claire's apartment, Olivia long since passed out and sprawled across her couch, snoring peacefully. She wonders if returning back to the farm would be that bad of an idea after all.


End file.
